Ballyellen House, Co Carlow – destroyed by fire in 1908 

Not in Bence Jones 

Jimmy O’Toole, The Carlow Gentry: What will the neighbours say! Published by Jimmy O’Toole, Carlow, Ireland, 1993. Printed by Leinster Leader Ltd, Naas, Kildare. 

Chap 4: Blackney of Ballyellen 

p. 30 “After the Bagenals and Kavanaghs had conformed to the Established Church, the only resident Catholic gentry family left in County Carlow at the beginning of the 19^th century was the Blackneys of Ballyellen. Walter Blackney settled in Ballycormack in 1685, where he inherited land from his maternal grandfather Dudley Bagenal. In 1781, they leased 800 acres from Lord Kenmare at Ballyellen, the family seat, until they sold their interest in 1865. Not surprisingly, it was a Blackney who was in the political front-line in 1831, when the Tories lost their political supremacy in County Carlow for the first time in almost a century and a half. Following his successful campaign for Catholic Emancipation, granted in 1829,Daniel O’Connell launched a campaign for repeal of the Union with Britain in 1830, drawing his political support from the merchant and professional classes, and some larger Catholic tenant farmers. Small tenant farmers and labourers did not have votes.” 

“The second Lord Kenmare, an absentee Catholic landlord, whose family seat was in Killarney, had 2000 acres in the parishes of Ballyellen and Lorum, but he did not use any influence on his Carlow tenants to resist or aid either side during this crucial period in local politics.” 

During the decade 1831-1843, County Carlow became a political cauldron, as the Tory landlords on one side and the O’Connellites on the other, vied for the support of the unfortunate tenants, who were torn between a desire to support the “popular party,” and the demands for political support from their landlords, who used the potent threat of eviction against wavering tenants…p. 31 It was a reign of terro during which some horrific injuries were inflicted, resulting in some instances in loss of life; a herdsman on a Bruen farm tenanted by a Catholic at Ballybrid had his two ears cut off. Animals were attacked and injured, and arson attacks on property were frequent.” 

“The election on 9^th Aug 1830, after the death of King George IV, was fairly typical of what had gone before, with three Tory candidates – Henry Bruen II, [p. 32] Thomas Kavanagh and Horace Rochfort – in a three way content for two seats, with Bruen and Kavanagh being elected. In the general electin of 1831, the same three Tory candidates faced opposition from repeal candidate Walter Blackney, and the Catholic liberal, Sir John Milley Doyle, a veteran of the Peninsular War. Detecting strong support for the opposition candidtes, all three Tory candidates withdrew from the contest the night before polling was due to take place, and Doyle and Blackney were both declared elected.” 

Three days after the election, The Kilkenny Moderator reported that sixty voters, tenants of Lord Downes, Colonel Bruen and Mr. Kavanagh, were taken from their houses, and concealed by the priests and the mob.” 

“In the next election in Dec 1832…Blackney’s running mate was Thomas Wallace, an eminent Dublin barrister. Their victory at the polls on this occasion was decisive over Bruen and Kavanagh.” 

“Anger among the Carlow landlords was now at fever pitch, following the loss of a second successive election, and the two defeated candidates petitioned against the return of their opponents on the grounds that some voters had not taken the oath required by law [p. 33], that freeholders and leaseholders of insufficient value had been allowed to vote, and that Walter Blackney did not own sufficient property to entitle him to be a candidate for the election. The petition was eventually thrown out by the select committee established to examine the objections, and the successful candidates held their seats…” 

“Walter Blackney did not seek a nomination in the election of January 1835, called as a result of Sir Robert Peel’s failure to form a government. Maurice O’Connell, eldest son of Daniel O’Connell, and barrister Michael Cahill, were narrowly defeated by Bruen and Kavanagh, but the election result was declared void and a new election held in June the same year. Nicholas Aylward Vigors, and Alexander Raphael, won that contest, but they in turn were unseated by a committee of enquiry, with the seats eventually going to Bruen and Kavanagh.” 

“The Blackneys came to Carlow from Dublin, where they ranked among the principal gentry of the Tudor times. The land inherited through Dudley Bagenal was forfeited in the late 1600s, but a claim in 1700 for renewal of the leases by the first Walter Blackney’s three teenage children, James, William and Mabel, was successful before the Court of Claims in Chichester House. Walter, the MP was the fifth generation of the Carlow branch of the family, and he was succeeded by his son Hugh, born 1818, who was the last Blackney to live at Ballyellen. The property was purchased in 1865 by Patrick Maher of Paulstown, Co Kilkenny, who had moved to live at Ballyellen house before his second marriage to Ann Clowry of Kilbricken in 1869. The house was destroyed by fire about 1908 and not rebuilt.” 

The Peerage:  

James Blackney married Gertrude Galwey, daughter of John Galwey and Jane O’Bryen, in October 1775.  
     He lived at Ballycormack, County Carlow, Ireland He lived at Ballyellen, County Carlow, Ireland  

Children of James Blackney and Gertrude Galwey  

Colonel Walter Blackney  

Jane Blackney  

  

Walter Blackney lived at Ballyellin, County Carlow, IrelandG.1  

Child of Walter Blackney  

Mary Ann Blackney. She married John Wyse and had daughter Mary Wyse, d. abt. 1805.